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Questioning the value and structure of the welfare state is unremarkable. Republicans and Democrats have done this consistently for decades. That’s not what Carson is doing. By embracing the far-right’s plantation rhetoric he is equating the entire social safety net with the darkest episode of oppression in our history while trivializing the black community’s most painful trauma. All this from a guy who probably would not have finished school without the welfare state. …

Blight-ridden stretches of our inner cities are being restored to their former splendor, but those burned out hulks have a crucial story to tell. Looting, both legal and extralegal, is built into the institutional fabric of our urban culture. Before the last crack house in Chicago’s West Town becomes a yoga studio we should stop to bear witness. The history of these troubled battleground neighborhoods holds clues that could help us understand our illness and its cure. …

What makes a guy like Ben Carson, for example, such a tragic figure is the way he turned his own remarkable success into a condemnation of those how did not succeed; those crushed by the same conditions of poverty and racism he endured. Survivors’ guilt can be a terrible torment. The deep conviction that you made it because you were more righteous than the worthless losers left behind in the ruins of Detroit must be a wonderful balm, though the odor is terrible. …

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